ABENEFITS OF ART

Annotated Bibliography
Britney LeBelle

1. Carter, C. S., Cohen, S., keyes, M., Kusimo, P. S., & Lunsford, C. (2000). UnCommon Knowledge: Projects That Help Middle-School-Age Youth Discover the Science and Mathematics in Everyday Life. Volume Two: Hands-On Math Projects. Hands on Math Projects, 2. Retrieved November 22, 2010, from the ERIC database.

Through the use art of quilting educators have helped learners get and more hands on approach to math, allowing 2-D or 3-D geometric shapes to become something they can relate to. A series of eight activities focuses on symmetry, motions of shapes and tessellations, all very important in the world of math, eventually allowing learning to develop their own shapes and become aware of similar patterns in the world.

Although this journal article's main purpose was to demonstrate a variety of math projects for younger children, the use of visuals is what makes the projects so effective. Visuals allow the children to clearly see shapes and how they fit together to form other shapes, knowledge which cam be applied to everyday life for it is full of shapes which can be simplified and broken down.


2. Eisner, E. W. (2002). //The arts and the Creation of Mind//. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Schools make it possible to share a way of life, a sense of belonging and community, and a place where a child's mind can grow and develop. Working in the arts allows "a way of creating our lives by expanding our consciousness, shaping our dispositions, satisfying our quest for meaning, establishing contact with others and sharing a culture."(p. 3) Humans have an ability to draw concepts using cultural knowledge, to perceive and recognize sensory information, and transform our ideas using imagination. Imagination allows us to express experience through an image, and refines out sensory system, Eisner states "For a young child the sensory world is a source of satisfaction and imagination a source of exploratory delight... rather than to have dry up under the relentless impact of serious academic schooling."(p. 5) School's curriculum could be seen as a mind altering device allowing the arts connect a pathway between representation and communication, and schools should providing the opportunities for cognitive development in children. Through art children can learn to become more aware of their environment, to develop disposition, to tolerate ambiguity, to exercise judgment free of rules, and to reach self understanding.

The role of art is one's life is similar to the role of play, both which influence the natural learning processes and changing how you view and react to experiences in life. As a child progresses through the education system the act of play is steadily taken away, hindering students ability to gain many life skills such as communication, problem-solving skills, and the ability to see past the ambiguous meanings in life; through art children have the opportunity to gain what otherwise would have been lost. Every school system has a goal to educate students on various required information on subject which is said to make a person well rounded, however if an individual has no ability to think freely and search for deeper meaning or communicate their ideas to the world,what good is this knowledge? When a teacher has the ability to reach out and instill intelligence beyond what can be measure by test, they have done a good job, for a school system to do this by introducing, they have done a great job.


3. Goldblatt, P. (2006). How John Dewey's Theories Underpin Art and Art Education. Education and Culture, 22(1), 17-34. Retrieved November 20, 2010, from http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/education_and_culture/v022/22.1goldblatt.html
Patricaia Goldblatt studies of John Dewey theories indicate and how they have influenced Art Education, according to her findings "every person is capable of being an artist, living an artful life of social interaction that benefits and thereby beautifies the world." allowing art to become a "catalyst to realms beyond the physical."(p. 17) Goldblatt also stated that art communicates moral purpose and education, enabling one's ability sense details and to higher understand human experiences, opening doors to expand perceptions and interpenetrate meanings. Through art education one learns to be socially conscious through underlying roles of moral conduct, broaden awareness, and enhance one's ability to make connections with symbols, events and values. Art allows people to experience and enjoy the world. As Goldblatt quoted Dewey, "[Art] quickens us from slackness of routine and enables us to forget ourselves by finding ourselves in the delight of experiencing the world about us in varied qualities and forms."(p. 20) Art extends traditional ways of knowing by removing and replacing fear with joy and passion, empowering students to interpret, express, perform and create their experiences through art, and through critical analyzation learn what is most important in those experiences. Art instills principles of democracy and responsibility as it "sensitized views to abrogation of rights, provoking imaginations to envision alternative responses."(p. 26)

“Artist present the model as they actively internalize, then externalize in their art.”(p. 20) "every person is capable of being an artist" and that art acts as a "catalyst", should inspire people no fear of art because they are not talented enough, or it to hard, but influence them to try for art is in the eye of the beholder. The benefits art offers far out ways it aesthetic value, it creates understanding of the world we live in, stimulates the imagination, allowing us to formulate and communicate ideas,and define what we view are good or bad which helps us find our role in society.


4. Jary, S. (2002). Performing and Creative Artists as a Resource in the World of Work. International Career Development Confrence (2002), 7. Retrieved November 22, 2010, from the ERIC database.
Art is a diverse field which gives individuals a sense of confidence which helps them succeed in other fields; as does arts ability to form self-knowledge and self-assessment. Artist have underlying adaptive skills such as: ability to work independently or part of a team, ability to take direction or be self
directed, respond quickly under pressure and to change, strive for excellence and motivation to improve skills, observational and concentration skills. For Suzie Jerry who worked specifically with finding alternative careers for professional dancers, she found that they developed skills that "extremely difficult to instill in people the striving for excellence, concentration, flexibility and team player skills that artist have,"(p. 5) causing them to be "outstanding performers" in most aspects of life.

Even though this article focuses on the preforming arts, aside from the physical, the benefits gained overlap those of which art as a whole has to offer. What Suzie Jary promotes the idea that art create strong willed individuals who stand out,willing to take on and rise to challenge with high success rate because of "adaptive skills". The confidence and disposition learned while practicing art changes how a person reacts, not allowing the challenge to discourage them but to encourage new ways of thinking to solve a problem.

5. Pogrebin, R. (2007, August 7). Arts Education - Research - New York Times. The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. Retrieved November 23, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/04/arts/design/04stud.html
In response to researchers who had no belief in the benefits art had on education, Harvard, Boston College, University of California, Stanford University and University of Texas, came back with individual arguments of their own. Harvard concluded "students who take high-quality art classes indeed do better in other courses," which is backed up by Boston College's study of three local public high schools which found art did offer broad indirect benefits. The University of California found that students who where more involved in the arts preformed better on standardized test along with many other positive benefit such as improved visual and verbal skills. Stanford University who has Elliot Eisner as one of their professors on staff states "Learning through the arts promotes the idea that there is more than one solution to a problem, or more than one answer to a question." Lastly the University of Texas points out that due to arts subject matter it is hard to lend itself to “quantifiable measurement", which put the presence of the arts in school in danger due to the "No Child Left Behind" policy.

This article was interesting the rage of numerous colleges and universities at the thought that people could argue art has no outstanding benefits. Each school took time to conduct research not finding any direct academic benefits, rather it consistently proved personal benefits which one could apply to academics. Even with no direct result there is still a growing concern of the loss of art in the school curriculum due to the lack of testability.

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